Photo note: The above picture was never meant to be seen by anyone but the people at Nike. It might have helped get me the gig as Ambassador though, so I thought I'd share it with everyone.

The other day I was out for a run on one of my usual routes. I checked my SportBand for my pace and thought to myself, "You’re going pretty fast.” Let me explain first that I have a terrible attention span and my mind wanders on a pretty consistent basis. So, per usual I began to have random thoughts and it led me back to my days in high school phys ed. I remembered having to run, and run a lot. When I say having to, I'm referring more to the curriculum and not necessarily myself, as I'm not sure a 12 minute mile really constitutes running.

My gym teacher was a salty older lady who had fitness coming out of her ears. She loved to run and forced her obsession on us. I suppose you’re thinking that this is eventually going lead to a love/hate relationship between her and myself, and in true movie fashion, ends with me running a marathon and celebrating at the finish line with the woman I once hated. I’ll clear the air now and tell you this is not the case. I can still recall “running” around the track panting and wanting to die while her shrill voice echoed through the field house, “Get moving fat butt!” Ok, maybe it went more along the lines of “It’s unacceptable to walk during 1 mile runs!,” but she had a way of making things sound a lot worse than they were.

Consequently, I despised running for a long time and received a B- in gym, saved only by my enthusiasm towards badminton. To get to the point, I was always a bigger guy until my senior year of college when I finally gave running a real chance. I dropped a significant amount of weight and really enjoy my quality of life these days a lot more. Running gives me something to look forward to on a daily basis, and it has really changed my whole demeanor. I’m a runner for life despite the fact that I still despise the sport. It will always be one of those things that I love to hate.